Football: CU Buffs' Yuri Wright ready to help secondary

Sophomore more mature this year, coaches say

By Sarah Kuta Buffzone.com

Posted:
08/13/2013 05:09:30 PM MDT

These days, Yuri Wright stays off Twitter and sticks mainly to his new favorite app, Instagram.

Wright, the University of Colorado cornerback who was expelled from his high school for posting sexually explicit and racially charged comments on Twitter, has a year of college football and classes under his belt. The sophomore is older, wiser and more mature, his coaches say, and this year, Wright plans to step up as a key member of Colorado's secondary.

"I don't even go on Twitter," Wright said, laughing. "I'm more of an Instagram guy now. The pictures can't get me in trouble."

The four-star recruit, who was courted by schools like Michigan and Notre Dame, seems to have avoided any more online drama since coming to Boulder last fall. He's learned his lesson, he said. When you're an athlete, especially a highly touted athlete, he said, someone is always watching.

Last year, Wright earned some playing time against Oregon and Stanford as a true freshman, but sat out four games during Pac-12 play, first because of a concussion and then an ankle injury. He's listed as third on the depth chart behind sophomore Kenneth Crawley and redshirt freshman John Walker. But Colorado faces plenty of spread offenses this season, which bodes well for Wright.

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"Pretty much all I can do is compete and then the coaches are going to decide whether they're going to put me out there or not," Wright said of his chances to see more playing time in 2013.

The biggest change Wright said he's seen so far under coach Mike MacIntyre and his staff has been an emphasis on re-learning, or in his case learning, the game's fundamentals.

In high school in Ramsey, N.J., Wright focused mostly on basketball until he picked up football as a junior. Wright grew up in the Caribbean playing cricket with his dad, and moved to the United States as a six-year-old.

In his short three-year football career, Wright said he never had the chance to learn some football basics.

With basketball, Wright, 20, can pick up the ball and start playing instinctively. He's not there yet with football, he said.

"I'm actually learning the game now," he said. "I'm actually being taught and I'm understanding defenses and offenses and stuff like that."

Wright suffered yet another injury in the spring, this time in his right hamstring and groin, so it's been hard for new cornerback's coach Andy LaRussa to see Wright at full strength. LaRussa said he and the rest of the defensive coaching staff is still trying to sort out who will play which roles in 2013.

"It's very hard to evaluate him properly and say 'Yes he can do this really well, no he can't,' " LaRussa said. "We wanted to make sure he was healthy for summer. The biggest thing we're looking to see is kind of what we get in those team situations. I'd like to see him tackle a bit more."

Coming off a season where Colorado's secondary allowed 39 touchdown passes -- the most of any team in the country -- and had only three interceptions in 12 games, Wright said this year already feels different.

MacIntyre also said he's seen improvement in the secondary already thanks to a lot of work with individual players and a focus on open-field tackling so far this year.

The new coaching staff is more organized and "on top of things," Wright said, and he's been watching -- and understanding -- more film this year than in the past.

"These guys go about things a lot differently than the last coaching staff," Wright said. "They're doing a real good job. You're going to see a different Buffaloes team this season."

Follow Sarah Kuta on Twitter:

@SarahKuta.

CU cornerback Yuri Wright is listed as third on the depth chart behind Kenneth Crawley and John Walker.
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